party?

more like confused grudgefuck…..

I’m sorry, I was spacing out for a second there.

I have every reason, having just returned from “The Dead” at John Paul Jones Arena, Charlottesville (our arena is named after the bass player for Led Zeppelin? Can I get a “FUCK YEAH!?”), following a rigorous afternoon trying to figure out what the hell the “tea partiers” were talking about in the Downtown Pavillion,…. and well,

I’m a CONFUSED LITTLE AMERICAN!

“Fuck all these simians.” (I say to myself, giggling slightly) “Word up too (sic) their mothers”

I’m not positive I’m even coherent right now, which I’m sure is how Glenn Beck goes on the air every night. (PERFECT!)

OK. I don’t always disagree with the tea partiers. I certainly mostly DON’T agree with the tea partiers. CHEEeeZ! If I base my party affiliation on that gathering then, hell, I’M A WITCH-LOVING sabbath merchant from Stevesylvania! No, wait, I’m a libertarianoliberoconservotaxhatowaxamatarian!

I just don’t get it. the tea party folks have their panties all in a knot, because the administration want’s to save lives rebuilding bridges, and turning the cole suckers a little more GREEN? Where the hell were they at when the Halliburton thugs were picking their pockets?

You can’t overlook the lack jack of any other highway to ride–I would sure like to see those folks try to drive their suv on the non socialist federal highway. Let’s turn all the highways into private toll roads. Next, we can start working on the airports and runways.

I believe there are more dollars been spent then “rebuilding bridges, and turning the cole suckers a little more GREEN?” Let’s see; there’s continued spending on Afthinkastankastan ( which I believe would include yet more money to the ‘evil’ Halliburton now of Dubai and possibly still “thugs” and “picking their (our would be more correct unless you don’t pay taxes) pockets”) and Iraq ( surprising how much longer we’re going to be there considering it was a follies to begin with); couple of million for the most recognized community support organization in the country but no money love for other worthy organizations with the same mission; a billion for internet protection so I don’t have to buy various software from the guys who just took over my computer to sell it to me; additional payments to folks like me who have been unemployed for more months than I care to remember; additional food stamps for me, you, the poor family down the street, and anyone else who willing to sit in a government office for a couple of hours so they can buy milk; some frog, birds, and fish get to watch government scientist and the corp. of engineers figure new ways to make water, electricity, and other resource based societal needs more expensive; and a lot of other stuff that our representatives never got around to reading about do to the crucial need of the stimulus package and the subsequent budget package. And just in case you missed it, most of the highways in the US were mostly toll roads until the populations (late 70’s thru late 80’s I think) of the states that had toll roads demanded that they become un-tolled cause we all preferre to have that money come out of or paychecks instead of having to wait in line to get change. I guess now it’s more reasonable to wait for change now but we must consider the carbon foot print of that wait. I think we should get ride of all interstate highways and turn them into greenways and who really needs to fly anywhere.

seriously, if this much money was being spent by the people on the people, that would be one thing, but that’s not what is happening, unfortunately, the tea bag people would be upset with that too, they see any of this spending as socialism, when it is really just handing cash to gamblers in the hopes that something will trickle down. I think some tea baggers mean well, just don’t see why they are so upset with the lower and middle class paying less taxes and the rich paying more, they are truly duped and working against their own best interest.

I can’t stand to be associated with the nationalistic tea baggers, nor the Obama administration, where exactly does my voice fit in?
I heard Mark Warner speak twice on thursday, the guy might as well be a republican, and the folks opposed to democrats sound more like the Italian fascist party of the 30s, so where the FUCK is the real left wing in government and media?

Since I came down from Oregon, there’s a lesson or two I’ve learned by standing in the road alone, standing watching the fires burn.

One was “don’t stand in the fucking road by yourself”. Also that it might be a good time to leave the country for a while, Bush and all, so when I came back East that is what I did.

Looking at the American expats I know, a disproportionate number are Chomsky-type leftists. Most of them are a little eccentric and I don’t know if they”re potential policy-makers, but maybe that is where the left wing is. Europe. If they didn’t all come flooding back after the inauguration, then maybe they know something.

what they know is that the new boss is the same as the old boss-
a little exaggerated, sure there are some big differences, but more responsible leadership doesn’t mean policies have changed much, and the capitalist system remains as strong as ever, with subsidies from the government- i’m gonna get heat on this from the duck probably- but note that the patriot act still exists, the war in Iraq still exists, and we are expanding U$ presence (and casualties) in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In economic matters, the bail outs represent no change from trickle down economics, no matter how much the tea baggers red-bait, I posit again- the democrats and republicans represent two factions of the same line of thinking.
(not my most well thought out post, maybe I’ll try to clarify later)

one other thing, Obama is one guy, we have a system where big money and business have serious influence over the political process, Obama, as much as any other politician, is affected by this, look at his appointments and his economic team, but- Wall Street, capitalist gambling, and multi-national corporations have way more control of society than one guy and his administration, that said, the new administration could try a bit harder to resist this.

But as you said so accuratly in the previous post “democrats and republicans represent two factions of the same line of thinking” so what would you think would come from his election. He is no less of a politican that I think falls somewhere between Johnson and Carter both in policy and political environment of the times. The parties and the politicans will never exicute any real change of national idioligy til the question of being reelected is removed for thier daily concern. I have suggested term limits as most of the readers of “The Dump” know but I don’t see the will in any group to seriously promote it, but it would be the answer to alot of these issues.

the only way to stop the hijacking of representative democracy by multi-national industrialist sharks and thier financeer/securities trader remoras is to make sure that they operate within the bounds of human rights. this only works if the “right to environment” is accepted as a universal human right in addition to the existing standards. if human labor and the environment are not tolerated as commodities which can be can be traded according to margins of profit, i.e not governed by the rules of the market but protected in the realm of civil rights, the free market capitalism can really be allowed to govern the world economy (it doesn’t now, obviously: “too big to fail” is not a concept that free market capitalism includes.) unfortunately, the biggest profits gathered around the world right now are based on the exploitation of human rights and the environment (and the securities traders play a game that is layered over and based upon those profits) so there is very massive and powerful opposition to a system that is actually based on the principles that we technically politically espouse and pay endless lip service to.

Yeah, but that ain’t happening unless we REMOVE THE MONEY FROM POLITICS. You know that little box on your tax form you check to donate to nationally funded campaigns? THIS SHOULD NOT BE OPTIONAL. I say we can one multi-billion dollar bomber (I never checked a box for those, are they optional?) and spend it on campaigns. Force the networks to give up some of their publicly owned air time to local candidates. And start electing the qualiified rather than the sexy.

Lobbying should be ILLEGAL. Corporations are not individuals and they do not deserve the protections of the First Amendment. They should not be allowed to donate to campaigns.

Capitalist shitheads are always going to rule as long as it takes millions to gain office. Hell, this one step would fix our political shitpile faster than anything else: faster than Barndoor’s outsider party and faster than Dogboy’s term limits.

your are right about the money,
please note, I did not suggest in this post any alternative party as a quick fix for anything. I do believe that the views espoused by that outsider party are the best approach to solving most of our problems, so I repeat – where is the real left on campaign financing? No need for a third party, a need for real leftist approach to what’s going on with economy, wars, environment.

corps losing their personhood would be an important advance, as would eliminating lobbying. as for publicly financed campaigns, they might help, but not if we only finance two parties. unfortunately these things will not eliminate money from politics as long as laws can be made that can make the difference between making millions or not. i.e pollution laws, labor laws, etc. the money will just flow under the label. this is why it is critical that those areas be controlled by the constitution as civil rights, because then you have to pay supreme court justices off and there are fewer of them to watchdog and they are less prone to be corrupted. it should not be in congress’ power to say that its ok to poison my air and water so some crap can be cheaper and a corp can make more profit. it should not be ok for a corp to be incentivised to send manufacturing jobs to counties that keep slave or wage slave populations in order to make thiings cheaper and make more profit. if you can make money without poisoning your neighbors or enslaving your workers good for you. if you can’t, we don’t need what you’re selling, even though the TV says we do.

“Stew” hit the nail squarely with “we don’t need what you’re selling, even though the TV says we do”. That, advertising, and travel is what cost money in elections and due to the professional political class is never more than two years from possibly losing their jobs, the ad campaign never stops. Federally run and financed elections would also make issues with absentee ballots, the voting dead, and “Floridiansism” a federal issue from the get go so the Supreme Court would be the finial arbiter of elections. FCC licensing should mandate more than enough equal time for all voices. Federal truth in advertising statutes should be updated to accommodate equal access to all other advertising forms by all voices. I guess that FAA regulations could mandate travel accommodation for all declared candidates. Or some of the funds generated by the 35% corp. tax rate be legislated to only fund election cost and not included in the general fund (sort of like Gore’s “lock box”). Or tax breaks for business that contribute to ……no that won’t work.

The reality is that corruption will never ever be separated from issues of money and power. All we can strive for ( hope is wishing and not participatory or effective in getting thing accomplished) is well structured laws, properly and fully enforced, and a society that is made up of all the various constructs that truly supports a moralist construct of society. And even then there will be a small, as it is now, number of individuals who are immoral or have a mental predisposition to take advantage of others or whose greed and lust drives them to poor and dishonest choices. This should be obvous, there are no absolutes, no matter how firmly you believe idoligy, in a functioning society at large or within the group of your closest friends.

Yeah, I heard him deliver most of this on Real Time last night. Good old Maher. I don’t always agree with him, but I’m glad he’s out there, making sense of non-corporate approaches to our political realities.

The best part is the comments section for his post. Bunch of whiny cry babies.